Do your goldfish grow in parts?

[bodoba 2,980]

I've been thinking about this for a while now. I don't notice anything but overall growth when my goldfish are in the pond but when they are in the basement, I notice that they seem to grow in parts instead of evenly throughout.

They all seem to have grown in depth, but now some are growing tails, some in length, some are getting some width to them. I have a little twin that seems to have huge oversized gills all of a sudden If I side view some I can see a hump forming. They all seem to grow in parts.

Do you notice overall growth or part growth in your fish?

[motherredcap 6,284]

Overall, with the exception of wen. There are times when his wen grows or not despite what the body does.

[JamieMonster 562]

My adults seem to alternate in growing either in body, or in fins; but rarely both at the same time. They will have a growth spurt, where they jump up like 1/2" in length in a month in body size, then they have like 2-3 mos where their fins just take off growing longer, and fuller. When they were babies, the majority of them just grew steadily in body size, usually about 1/4- 1/2" a month, and their fins don't really start to grow, or fill in too much, until they are about 9 mos to a year, and around 2" in body length. A bunch of my guys were only a little bigger than my thumb nail, without fins, when I brought them home, so getting to 2" is quite a bit of growth.

Short answer; Yeah, my guys seem to grow "in parts", but it is more body or fins than different parts of the body.

[GoldenSpoiledRotten 6,786]

I find goldfish to be a lot like people on their growth patterns. They grow in parts until they reach their prime (i.e. adulthood), it stops for a while, then their fins start to sag. (like old people)

[Gcourtney 854]

[tithra 4,917]

Edie's tail will not stop growing!

[RanchuDressing 2,542]

I find that young goldies seem to put much of their growth energy into body growth for at least the first year, sometimes two. Length and girth seem to be the priority. Then the "extras," like lovely long fins or chunky wens, start to accelerate.

When choosing young goldfish, I avoid fish that have well-developed wens or long flowing fins at a very young age. In my experience, that's a sign that the fish isn't going to have good overall growth and reach a nice big size.

[shakaho 6,312]

When choosing young goldfish, I avoid fish that have well-developed wens or long flowing fins at a very young age. In my experience, that's a sign that the fish isn't going to have good overall growth and reach a nice big size.

You know, it was only after I got Butterfly that I read that very long fins in a very small fish suggested stunting. I picked her out because she was about the smallest fish in the 13 cent tank at Petsmart and had the longest fins. She was half the standard length of Valentine, her store tankmate, and he was half the length of Spookyfish. I got these two because Spookyfish (probably 4-6 months older) would not get over being scared of me, and I thought a tankmate or two would help tame her. It worked, and Valentine rapidly grew to the length of Spooky, while Butterfly trailed behind at about half as long (standard (body) length). Then, when she was about a year old, Butterfly had a growth spurt. Spooky and Valentine are now average-sized fish, and Butterfly is longer. She has the longest fins of any fish in the pond.

That's her in the middle. Sorry about the dirty water. I took this picture to show what a mess the water was right after I set up a new bog filter.

I'm not saying that extra long fins might not be an indicator of a fish that won't grow well, but I think the best is mouth size. A breeder of show koi noted for his huge fish, said that if you want big fish, choose babies with big mouths. I've found this very reliable.